Andrew McCabe, Paul Manafort and Mueller's theory: A criminal conspiracy implicating the president?
House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., explained it this way on MSNBC:
It appears the judge has largely agreed with what the special counsel argued and that not only did [Manafort] lie, but the motivation here is that if he told the truth about his relationship with someone with Russian Intelligence while he was the campaign chairman that would be so damaging to Trump that it would negate his chance of a pardon.
I have never subscribed to the theory that the president is a wily operator who’s always strategizing ways to distract the media and the public from bad news about him. Trump has a strong feral survival instinct, so he’s always bobbing and weaving, but I doubt he makes these choices consciously. In this case, however, he seems a bit too eager to draw attention to the McCabe story considering how damning it actually is.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/andrew-mccabe-paul-manafort-muellers-theory-criminal-conspiracy-implicating-president/